"We've got important work here... a lot of filing, and giving things names."

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Most boring spring break ever, days 3 and 4: Apparently I Needed This

So, as usual, my grand plans were a bit too ambitious. You know what I've been doing a lot of over the last few days?

I've been sleeping.

Now, this is not to say I haven't gotten anything done. I'm slowly getting caught up on a couple of projects. I finished one of three grading projects (two large and one medium). I finished some revisions on an article (overdue by 10 days) and a book review (overdue by one week). And yes, I've even done some social stuff, and gotten to yoga. These are all good things.

But I've been sleeping a lot. The alarm goes off at a perfectly reasonable hour, and I turn it off and sleep for another hour. Or two.

I'm not beating myself up about this. I know that my body is telling me something. I've been running a sleep deficit all semester. And there have been a lot of icky illnesses going around,[1] so maybe my body is fighting all these things that might otherwise seriously wipe me out, were I to fall ill. And I've been going to bed far too late.

But I also know that mornings are my best creative work time. And I know that what I need to do is get to bed at a decent hour so I can get up early, meditate,[2] and get right to work. When I get in this rhythm, I can get in three very productive hours.

Everyone is different on this. And I know myself, and what I need to do. So now, it's time to just buckle down and do it. Because you know what? That paper needs to get written.

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[1] Seriously, have these nasty bugs been going around where you live, too? I have friends who have been completely laid up anywhere from two to six days, and have felt rotten for two weeks after they were finally able to get out of bed.

[2] This is another thing that's been falling by the wayside. And it's another thing that I know for a fact makes my life better if I do it.

Sufficient sleep is essential to the efficient generation of creative work product. And yes, some kind of fucken virus bugge has been going around with symptoms like you describe, as well as a fucken painful sore throat.

Eldest was felled for a full week by the nastiest cold I've seen in years with a cough that could take down major outbuildings. A lot of my students have been hard hit, too. I don't know how I missed the worst of it, except by trying to get to sleep earlier on the weekdays (I gave up my one 10pm TV show and late-night news habit for good) but I think it was mostly blind luck.

About Me

Professor of Medieval Stuff at Urban University, Grit City Beach, struggling to figure out life after tenure. I'm a picture-taking, document-deciphering, bike-riding, goofball intellectual. I sing and dance, both badly, but with great enthusiasm. I care deeply about the proper use of apostrophes.
You can contact me directly at notoriousphd ~ at ~ mac ~ dot ~ com